Intern Vacation! - Part 1: Puerto Viejo

Last week there was an EMI conference in the States, so you know what that means: Intern Party!  All of the interns, along with our friend from language school, Katie, and Bethany’s boyfriend, Matt, took a few days off of work and went to some of the most amazing beaches I have ever seen.

The trip began with a long bus ride from Atenas to San Jose to Puerto Viejo in southern Costa Rica.  We spent the rest of the day exploring the town, eating seafood, and relaxing on the beach.  I spent that night sleeping outside in a hammock just because I could (I was under a mosquito net, of course…not that it helped.  I had 5 mosquitos trapped in with me all night). 

The next day, we went to an amazing place called Bread and Chocolate.  I ordered a mocha and they brought out a cup of homemade chocolate, a cup of milk, and a coffee press.  I made the mocha “wrong,” and put all of the chocolate in the first cup, along with a little milk and a little coffee.  So good!

After recovering from our food comas, we hiked through the woods on our way to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  It was completely undeveloped, and the forest went all the way up to the beautiful white sand beaches that gently flowed into the crystal-clear perfect temperature Caribbean Sea.  Its off-season right now, so there were very few people at the beach, locals mostly.  We spent the day taking pictures, playing in the water, taking naps, and building faces and hearts in the sand.

That afternoon, we explored a beach on the other side of Puerto Viejo called Playa Negra.  The sand on this beach is all black because it is made of volcanic rock.  The sand is very fine and very soft.  The water at this beach was also perfectly clear, and the perfect temperature to play around in while enjoying the unique sand.  That night, we explored the town a little more and got to listen to some live Reggae music.

The next morning began with an attempt at catching sunrise at Playa Negra (it wound up being too cloudy to get any great pics).  After that, took a van to the boarder, made our way through customs (which seemed optional for many people), and made our way across a former railroad bridge with wood (sometimes) nailed across the railroad ties to keep people from falling through.  After going through customs and paying our $1 tourism fee in Panama, we got in the van and drove to a dock.  At the dock, we hopped in a boat and made our way to Boca del Torros.